New Designed Opener for Conservation Tillage in Dry Land

Direct planting has become a more common practice in the recent years, because it conserves soil and water as well as it is low-cost method. Since it requires special implements, it did not have much progress in our country. Regarding that the direct planting is practiced in undisturbed lands, seed planter (especially its furrows openers) must have an especial structure. In order to obtain a suitable furrow opener, this experiment was conducted in Dryland Agricultural Research Institute in Maragheh. Hence, O1 and O2 openers were designed and their performance compared with hoe opener (check). At three different operating speeds (5, 8 and 10 km.ha-1 ), all openers were evaluated for draft force, plant depth uniformity, soil disturbance and number of seedlings. The experiment was conducted using a split plot design based on RCBD at 4 replications. The results showed that there were significant differences among the openers. Maximum planting depth uniformity and seedling number were observed in O2, and the lowest draft force was seen in O1, where the check opener had minimum soil disturbance. Although, O2 had the highest soil disturbance, but its draft force did not significantly differ with check opener. Increasing operating speed, draft force increased and reduced planting depth. Moreover, it had no significant effects on soil disturbance and seedling number. It can be concluded that new designed O2 opener could improve the germination of seedlings, and the uniformity of planting depth without need to significantly draft force increasing in compared with the check. Hence, O2 opener could be recommended to use for direct planting in drylands.